In 2017, the Sentencing Council introduced a revised guideline for plea-based sentence reductions. The revisions were designed to provide greater certainty and to accelerate the timing of guilty pleas. Late pleas resulting in ‘cracked trials’ have long been a problem in the court system. The guideline was not intended to change the rate of defendants who plead guilty, but rather to increase the percentage of pleas entered early in the criminal process. This brief article reports findings from an analysis of data from the Crown Court before and after the introduction of the revised sentencing guideline. Findings reveal that the overall guilty plea remained stable over the period 2014–2019. The guideline appears to have had no effect on the timing of guilty pleas entered, and in fact the percentage of ‘cracked’ trials rose in the post-guideline period.

2017 年，量刑委员会引入了一项修订后的基于认罪的减刑指南。这些修订旨在提供更大的确定性并加快认罪的时间。迟到导致“审判破裂”的请求长期以来一直是法院系统中的一个问题。该指南的目的不是为了改变认罪的被告的比率，而是为了增加在刑事程序早期提出的认罪的百分比。这篇简短的文章报告了在引入修订后的量刑指南之前和之后对皇家法院数据进行分析的结果。调查结果显示，2014 年至 2019 年期间，总体认罪情况保持稳定。该指南似乎对认罪的时间没有影响，